Kinetic Study And Reactor Simulation Of Toluene Alkylation With Methanol

Para-Xylene has an important application in industrial process; toluene alkylation with methanol to produce para-Xylene with high concentration is a new route to increase para-Xylene. With the development of catalysts and process conditions, the industrialization of toluene alkylation with methanol may realize. In this paper, the kinetics of toluene alkylation with methanol have been studied in the modified ZSM-5 catalysts with Si, P, Mg; the reaction process have been analyzed based on the kinetics of toluene alkylation with methanol; the one-dimensional and two-dimensional reactor have been also discussed, these can provide a reference for the reactor industrialized.According to the production distribution of the kinetic experiments for toluene alkylation with methanol, the reaction models and the kinetic models have been proposed, the activation energy for toluene alkylation with methanol to produce para-Xylene is about 53.686kJ/mol, the observed data by the kinetics have a good agreement with the experimental, and the error is about 6%.From the results of reaction process analysis, when the ratio of toluene to methanol is little, toluene conversion and reaction temperature have a significant increase, and the adiabatic temperature rising is about 9℃; When the molar ratio of nitrogen to hydrocarbon is little, the partial pressure of reactants will improve, which will make toluene conversion and reaction temperature increase, and the adiabatic temperature rising also have a large enhancement; With the increase of the feed temperature, toluene conversion has a important change, but the adiabatic temperature rising has nothing obvious variation.The one-dimensional homogeneous reactor and the two-dimensional homogeneous reactor have been studied respectively. In the one-dimensional reactor model, toluene conversion, reaction temperature, and the molar fraction of other components can be achieved along reactor axial, another, with the ratio of length to diameter for the catalyst bed increase, the pressure drop will increase. In the industrial reactor, heat transfer, mass transfer, reaction and fluid dynamic happen simultaneously, they should be considered together. In the two-dimensional homogeneous reactor, because of the heat and mass transfer, toluene conversion and reaction temperature not only have change in the reactor axial, but also have the some change along the radius. Fluid flow have a significant effect on the reactor, toluene conversion have an obvious rise and reaction temperature decline apparently in the reactor radius when the fluid flow have been considered.